There are a number of data communications applications that make use of optoelectronic sending and receiving devices (i.e. light emitters and photodetectors). For fiber optic data communication applications requiring less than 200 MBits/sec., light emitting diodes (LEDs) are the light emitters of choice because they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture. For applications requiring higher speeds, lasers are typically used as the light emitters.
Until recently, most high speed data communications applications employed edge emitting lasers in a serial (single channel) format. With the advent of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), many such applications are now implemented using VCSEL arrays that can be interfaced to ferrules carrying multiple fibers to transmit several bits of data in parallel. At the receiving end, an array of photodetectors is coupled to the multiple fibers. The ability to manufacture VCSELs in arrays (an advantage of LEDs), combined with their high speed of operation (an advantage of lasers), makes VCSELs desirable in such applications.
For high-speed serial duplex data communications applications, however, separately packaged light emitters (usually edge emitting lasers) and photodetectors are still employed. For long-haul applications (typically having distances greater than 1 kilometer), wavelength division multiplexing is often employed to transmit and receive data for a duplex channel over the same fiber. Because the primary cost of a long-haul duplex serial data channel resides in the fiber and its installation, complex beam-splitting techniques can be justified at the ends of the channel to separate the transmit and receive data streams from the single fiber.
For short-haul or “premises” applications, however, the cost of fiber and fiber installation is relatively less important than the cost of the many transmit and receive functions. Thus, it is the cost of the data transmit and receive components, and particularly the optoelectronic devices and their packaging, that drives cost considerations for short-haul applications. Typical short-haul implementations of a high-speed serial fiber optics data communications channel operating in full duplex still employ two multimode fibers, each one to connect an individually packaged transmitting light emitter to an individually packaged receiving photodetector. This is because the cost of complex beam-splitting components often cannot be justified.
FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) illustrate the components comprising a typical implementation of a transmit or receive link for a short-haul high-speed duplex data communications application. FIG. 1(a) illustrates a fiber assembly 12. A round ferrule 26 houses an optical fiber 28, which is located precisely in the center of ferrule 26. A typical diameter for ferrule 26 is approximately 2.5 mm. Ferrule 26 comes with a latching mechanism 30, which is used to clamp and secure the ferrule to a barrel 32 of an optical sub-assembly 10, which is depicted in FIG. 1(b). Barrel 32 houses optoelectronic device 14 typically in a TO can package 16 centrally located in the barrel as shown. Optoelectronic device 14 is typically located at an appropriate point within can 16 by a standoff 2. Driver or amplifier circuitry is coupled to optoelectronic device 14 through leads 22. A window 18 is provided in the top of the can package to allow transmitted light out or received light in, depending upon whether the optoelectronic device is a light emitter or a photodetector. The TO package is aligned with fiber 28 and epoxied using epoxy 24 to fix the position of the optoelectronic device with respect to the ferrule 26 and hence fiber 28. Optical elements such as lens 20 are typically provided to focus the light for optimal optical efficiency, particularly where the light emitter is an edge emitting laser. Barrel 32 is designed to mate with latching mechanism 30 of fiber assembly 12.
Both fiber assembly 12 and barrel 10 are precision manufactured for precise mating. Active alignment TO package 16 and optoelectronic device is ordinarily performed in the x, y and z axes. First, the optoelectronic device is precisely aligned within the package 16. Second, the package 16 is precisely aligned within barrel 10. Finally, optical element 20 is precisely aligned with respect to its distance from the optoelectronic device 14 to achieve proper optical operation. Because a separate package is required for both the transmit side and the receive side of the duplex data channel, a total of twelve active alignments are typically performed for each channel and each channel includes the cost of eight precision-manufactured coupling parts.
FIGS. 1(c) and 1(d) provide schematic illustrations of the fiber assembly 12 and optoelectronics subassembly 10 of FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), respectively.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical duplex serial data communications module 40, which has mounted to it an optical subassembly 52 containing a light emitting device 13 disposed in a TO can package 9 having a window 17, which is to be mated with an optical fiber assembly 46 and which is dedicated to data transmission. Module 40 also has an optical subassembly 50 mounted to it containing a photodetector 15 disposed in TO can package 11 and which is to be mated with optical fiber assembly 48 and dedicated to receiving data from a remote module not shown. Because of the differing optical requirements of the transmit and receive devices, the modules must often be mounted in a staggered fashion as shown. Moreover, the transmit devices are located at an optically appropriate point in their can packages by standoffs 4 and 6 respectively.
Because of the cost of the precision components and the large number of alignments required for implementing duplex serial modules 40, it is highly desirable to integrate the transmit and receive optoelectronic devices (i.e. light emitter and photodetector) into one package. The integration of the two devices into a single package is not, however, an easily achieved solution. The prior art implementations as illustrated in FIGS. 1a–d and 2 cannot be readily adapted to multifiber ferrules currently available for unidirectional data transmission using VCSEL arrays. These multifiber ferrules have fiber spacings which are typically about 250 microns and can be less. The diameter of the TO can package 14 commonly used in present implementations is itself 5600 microns in diameter. Thus, the standard ferrule and barrel would have to grow substantially in diameter to accommodate two fibers having the spacing dictated by the TO cans housing the optoelectronic devices.
Even if a substantially larger barrel could be created to integrate the light emitter and photodetector as commonly packaged to receive both a transmit and a receive fiber, it is not clear that the resulting package could provide the necessary separation of incoming and scattered outgoing light beams to prevent crosstalk between the transmit and receive signals (at least not without complex optics and possibly some form of isolation). Although solutions have been disclosed to stack a light emitter (typically an LED) on top of a photodetector to transmit and receive wavelength division multiplexed signals (the light emitter is transparent to the received wavelength), beam-splitting must still be employed at the opposite end.
Closely spaced VCSELs and photodetectors can suffer leakage effects which can degrade the sensitivity of and induce excess noise into the operation of the photodetector. Also, current leakage from the VCSEL to the photodetector can unacceptably alter the operating characteristics of the photodetector over time.
Conventional photodetectors output low amplitude current signals that are highly susceptible to noise and crosstalk with the VCSEL. Therefore, conventional photodetectors require highly sensitive interface electronics, typically Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) for high speed, low noise integration with the photodetector. The use of GaAs receiver electronics, however, greatly adds to the cost of high speed data communications.
Thus, there is room in the art for an improvement in the area of optoelectronic device fabrication which facilitates the integration of one or more pairs of transmit and receive devices, without current leakage between them, for interfacing with a single ferrule carrying one or more pairs of fibers having spacings of 250 microns or less, to substantially reduce the cost and complexity of implementing high-speed serial duplex data communications channels including the cost of receiver interface electronics.